Related Research: Accountability and Improvement

Marshall (Mike) Smith and Jennifer A. O’Day
2016 | The authors argue that disparities within the educational system are the product of institutional structures and cultures that both disenfranchise certain groups of students and depress quality overall. They envision a three-pronged systemic remedy: a continuous improvement approach for addressing educational opportunities; targeted high-leverage interventions focused on key transition points and needs; and stronger connections between schools and other institutions and systems affecting the development and well-being of children and youth.

Linda Darling-Hammond, Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger
2014 | This report by Linda Darling-Hammond, Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger recommends an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and appropriate resources, so all students graduate prepared for college and careers. Drawing on existing state practices and on the views of policymakers and school experts, the report proposes principles for effective accountability systems and imagines a new accountability system in a so-called 51st state.

Linda Darling-Hammond and Frank Adamson
2014 | This book situates the current discussion of performance assessment within the context of testing in the United States. The memory and recall strategies of traditional testing are not adequate to equip students with the skills they need to excel in the global economy. Instead, the authors argue that teachers should engage students in deeper learning, assessing their ability to use higher-order skills. This comprehensive resource also looks beyond our U.S. borders to examples in Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

David T. Conley and Linda Darling-Hammond
2013 | This report describes how state policymakers and education leaders can strategically design assessment and accountability systems to support learning for students, educators, and systems alike. Drawing on research and successful practices in the United States and abroad, the report offers a blueprint for new systems of assessment that are able to support the development of deeper learning skills, to generate instructionally useful diagnostic information, and to provide insights about a wider range of student capacities.

Featured Resources

Often forgotten in the policy debates on school choice are fundamental questions of whether and how choice influences access to high-quality schools, and whether, in our diverse democracy that requires common ground, choices promote or undermine integration. This report reviews research on a variety of school choice strategies and examines how public school choices can be managed to ensure all students have excellent schools to choose from and are chosen by excellent schools.

Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity—experiences that can affect attention, learning, and behavior. This report looks at neuroscience, science of learning, and child development research on whole child approaches to education that improve learning for all students, especially those living with trauma.

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), in addition to the required indicators of schools performance, states can select indicators to measure schools’ efforts to support students and provide equitable opportunities or to identify places where additional investments need to be made to improve education and support underserved students. This report documents how states are taking advantage of this opportunity to address disparities, make schools more inclusive, and help all students succeed.

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